What USPS “Delivered” means on a package and on a letter

What does “Delivered” mean on a USPS package?

It means the carrier scanned the package's label when leaving it. USPS's tracking help says the package "has been delivered with a recorded date, time and delivery location," which is why you see wording like "Delivered, In/At Mailbox" or "Delivered, Front Door/Porch." The location is what the carrier chose on the scanner at that moment.

What does “Delivered” mean on a letter?

A letter's delivered event is an estimate. Nobody scans a letter at the mailbox, so USPS's guide to its tracking data calls the event "an implied delivery," with the operation code 517. USPS records it when the carrier's handheld scanner leaves the area of the address's ZIP+4 on the route that day, and for a PO box it comes from a scan the post office makes once its boxes are filled.

Most of the time the letter really is in the mailbox when this appears. Now and then it shows before the letter is there, for example when the letter was held at the post office for the next day. USPS's Domestic Mail Manual says its letter tracking "does not provide a delivery scan or proof of delivery," so PigeonTrail shows the event as "USPS marked it delivered" and never calls it proof.

What should you do if it says delivered but didn't arrive?

Wait one more postal business day and look again. For a package, USPS suggests checking the mailbox later in the day, the porch, the garage, a parcel locker key in your mailbox and anyone else in the household. If it has been more than one postal business day since the delivered scan, USPS asks you to submit a service request to your local post office.

For a letter, wait a day past the delivered estimate too, because the most common reason for a gap is a letter held at the post office overnight. Ask your buyer to check with neighbors, since a letter is easier to put in the wrong box than a package. If it still hasn't come, a USPS Missing Mail search or a reship is the next step, and the letter's scan history is the record to keep with your order.

Why did my letter never say delivered?

About 17% of ZIP codes are areas where USPS sorts the last step by hand, and its table says "no tracking code scans should be generated" there. Letters to those areas get their plant scans and then go quiet, while arriving as usual. A carrier's scanner that doesn't report the route that day has the same effect, and USPS's own tracking help says that "the absence of a delivery scan on a mailpiece does not necessarily indicate that the item was not delivered."

That is why PigeonTrail compares each letter with the day USPS expects it before calling it late, and why a letter without a delivered event is not treated as lost. You can see that date for any two ZIP codes with our delivery time tool.